Soccer club in east Vancouver going back to its roots, says goodbye to Washington Timbers name

Paul Valencia
ClarkCountyToday.com

New banners were unveiled Wednesday night, with hundreds of soccer players, coaches, and parents cheering for the new brand with an old name.

The Columbia Timbers are no more. Columbia Premier Soccer Club has arrived. Again.

“Same values. Same mission statement. Same community,” said Robin Bostwick, technical director for Columbia Premier.

The longtime soccer club in east Vancouver — its headquarters are at the Harmony Sports Complex — is going back in time to focus on the future.

“This is the name I played for, years and years and years ago,” said Sean Janson, executive director of the club. 

As in more than 30 years ago, he noted, without revealing his age.

The club changed its names to the Washington Timbers as part of an alliance with a couple of clubs in Portland.

“When the Timbers alliance started, we were one of the original clubs,” Bostwick said. “It became a number of affiliates that represented different things from different places. We felt it was really important that we had our own name that represented our own community, our own coaches, our own families, and our own players.”

Columbia Premier was the name of one of the original soccer organizations that founded the club as it is known today.

“We wanted to go back and really focus on Southwest Washington and our own history,” Janson said.

“It’s a facelift, forging forward as a club on its own,” added Bamini Pathmanathan, a member of the board of directors.

Columbia Premier is the largest competitive soccer club in Clark County. It offers athletes a place to compete at multiple levels, including play in elite national leagues. 

“We bring top-class facilities, top-class coaching, top-class leadership,” Bostwick said. “ We have a full professional staff of directors that is working all the time to try to create the best player development we can create here.”

None of that will change, he added.

Just the new name with a salute to history.

“When we discussed the different options, the roots were part of it, but it’s also the best name that represents us right now,” Bostwick said. “Nice to be able to call back to that foundation, and at the same time, it made a lot of sense to carry us into the future.”

Hundreds of soccer players representing a number of age groups and skill levels were training Wednesday night. All of the teams took a break to celebrate the name change. They ate Columbia Premier blue cupcakes. They also took part in the unveiling of the banners.